Why Gamers Should Care About the Latest Windows Update

I like this article a lot. It spells out what you can expect from the "Gaming Mode" and how to access it.

In particular, I liked the fact that it seems, at least in the review, higher end hardware really does NOT benefit from this...enhancement. That said, for those with lower to a middle of road hardware setup, you might see a decent boost.

That's where the Creators Update may help. It takes a longstanding Windows concept, whereby you could manually tell Windows to give a process higher system priority in the Taskbar, and lets you wrap whatever game you like inside a comparable sort of performance firewall. In essence, Game Mode is designed to "protect" a game from outside interference. With the Creators Update installed, all you have to do is pull up the Game bar after launching a game (Windows key + G), click the Settings button, then enable Game Mode. You can alternatively hit Windows key + I to bring up general Settings, go to the new Gaming section, then enable Game Mode globally, if, like me, you use your PC strictly for gaming.

At this point, the adage "your mileage may vary" can't be overstated. Most sites report the performance improvements are negligible to nil on enthusiast-caliber hardware, speculating that you're more likely to see benefits if you're rocking lower-end gear, or are bound by a slower CPU. Microsoft itself describes the Creators Mode version of Game Mode as "just the first milestone in our commitment to Game Mode and Windows 10 performance improvements for PC gaming," as if it, too, understands the benefits are going to be invisible to most out of the gate. How much is anyone going to notice a momentary 2 to 3 frame rate drop in games like Overwatch or Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare anyway?